Farrier Bob Cameras caught Dawson, 59, demonstrating the skills he learned from his late dad George, who was the shoesmith at Northumberland's Cambois Colliery for many years until it closed in 1968.

Award-winning film producer Trevor Hearing was there to film Mr Dawson at work on Tom - a 24-year-old horse supplied by Stone House Stables, Bedlington - on the former site of the pit.

It was part of a project which will result in both a documentary and a fictional story about the history of Cambois which will be shown at film festivals at home and abroad.

The story of the village, including its mining heritage, traditions and local customs is being told through local people with first-hand experience.

The idea started with the Six Townships Community History Group, set up to research the history of Cambois, Bedlington, West and East Sleekburn, Netherton and Choppington.

It is being funded by MidNAG, the mid-Northumberland Arts Group, Wansbeck Council's cultural services section and the Northern Rock Foundation.

The project is linked to an initiative, called Cargoes, that will link Cambois with the Port of Tyne and the Baltic ports of Karosta, Latvia and Gothenberg in Sweden.

The eventual aim is to have a satellite link between the areas, which, as coastal ports, have much in common in their industrial history.

Mr Hearing, 45, who runs Newcastle-based Studio Arts TV Ltd, a small independent production company, said: "We are making a documentary about Cambois which will look back on its history and at its future.

"We are also making a fictional film with the community here. We are helping the community write the film which will be a story about a family through different generations.

"It will be shown at film festivals at home and abroad as this is a good way of getting the film out there and getting it distributed and seen."

A former Tyne Tees Television producer, Mr Hearing has won Royal Television Society awards for his filming work. He is also a media lecturer at the University of Sunderland and the project forms part of his own research in to community films.

He has linked up with John Dawson, secretary of the local history group, to record the history of Cambois in a project costing about &#xA3;30,000.

Mr Dawson said: "I thought it would be a good idea to film Bob as he learnt all his skills off his dad as a kid and his dad was part of a team which fetched the last ponies out of the pit in 1969.

"Bob started shoeing his first pony when he was five with his dad in Wilson Avenue, Cambois. George died in 1976 when he was 63."

The film will be screened in the region as well as at international film festivals, and local people will be given the chance to buy video copies of it as well.

Anyone with a story to tell or who would like to be involved in the Six Townships Community History Group can contact Mr Dawson on (01670) 819904.